The big idea
Romans ends with a list of names, a short warning, and a promise: the obedience of faith will reach every family on earth, and each one will bring Christ a glory that no one else can bring. That promise is God’s burden, not ours. Which is precisely what makes it safe to help.
Key takeaways
- However incompetent you find yourself to be, you can receive grace from Christ to serve him. Paul did not become an apostle by being the best and brightest — he received it as a gift.
- Paul commends Phoebe with the same Greek word translated “deacon” elsewhere — but Matt’s point was her posture, not a position on women in leadership. She was after service, not a title.
- Nobody should pursue ministry to prove themselves — women or men. “We are serving at his pleasure, with his grace, for his glory.”
- Paul tells the Romans to avoid divisive people, and the division he means is doctrinal, not political or cultural. Being perceived as unkind was not near the top of his concerns.
- Faith and obedience are not in tension. They are the same motion — the child who jumps because a parent is there to catch him is obeying and trusting in one act.
- “All the nations” does not mean the world’s 195 countries. It means distinct peoples — as many as 17,000 by some counts, with perhaps 8,000 still lacking any movement of the church in their own idiom.
- The goal is not only large numbers of believers. It is that every family of the earth honour Christ authentically, in its own way, so the Father can give his Son a full prism of glory.
- God uses the circumstances of every age — including the arrogant and ugly ones — to carry the testimony of Jesus. No one has a plan strong enough to stop him getting a bride.
Matt closed out the Romans series in the chapter most preachers skip — a page of greetings — and said up front he would be “hitting some and skipping others.” Anyone wanting a genuinely competent treatment of this material should take the church’s upcoming perspectives class, he added. If an okay version would do, they could hang tight.
Phoebe, and three small things about names
“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae… for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.”
Romans 16:1–2The word behind “servant” is the one Paul uses in 1 Timothy 3:8–12, where a deacon “must be faithful to his wife” — a verse long read as settling the question. “In this instance, Paul is technically calling her a deacon,” Matt said. “I’m not trying to push a radically different perspective of women and leadership. I just want to point out that is the word he uses.”
What he did offer was the dos and don’ts. Do maintain the distinction between men and women, because God made us that way and “he doesn’t do stupid stuff” — and celebrate it rather than tolerate it. Don’t push the topic rebelliously, or break a glass ceiling for the sake of breaking one. “Definitely don’t go into ministry leadership to prove yourself. We are serving at his pleasure, with his grace, for his glory.”
The short version, the one he would give over coffee: there appears to be a default male leadership in the New Testament with plenty of room for women to serve too, and the distinctions mattered far less then than they do to us. “That’s kind of our vibe right now. That wasn’t Paul’s vibe.” The point is that Phoebe was not after a title. She was after service.
Same shape with Prisca and Aquila, a married couple who appear three times in Acts, travelled with Paul and “risked their necks” for him — thanked here by all the churches of the Gentiles, not only by Paul. Then Andronicus and Junia, “well known to the apostles” (Romans 16:7). The Greek will not tell you whether the two were apostles or simply known by them. “That’s again not the point,” Matt said. The point is that Christ’s glory is the goal, and that whoever you are — “however incompetent you may find yourself to be” — you can receive grace from him to serve him.
The names, and the man holding the pen
He skipped verses 8 through 16 and felt bad about it. “Imagine being in the Bible — and then pastors always skip your verse.” Go home and read them, he suggested.
He did stop for Tertius, the scribe who slips his own greeting into verse 22. “Can you imagine listening to Paul with his bunny trails and his side comments and his long sentences?” Whether Tertius asked permission or took his moment while Paul was out of the room, nobody knows. The shout-out was sincere anyway.
Avoid them
“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them… The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”
Romans 16:17–20Matt lingered first on the name: the God of peace. That is part of who he is, and one of the fingerprints to look for in your own life and in others’. “He’s not a God of chaos. He’s not trying to wreck your life. He might break things that you’re up to, but that’d be a good breaking.”
Then the instruction that grates against modern sensibilities. Avoid them can feel mean, and Paul is not weighing that. The people in view were not divisive politically or over what food gets served; they were divisive about doctrine — likely the pressures Paul had fought all letter, hauling free people back under the Torah, coercing consciences over circumcision. The gospel brings life and blessing; it is not the thing to compromise over.
Verse 18 cuts in every direction. “Recall the tiny comments I made earlier about women in leadership. This applies to women. It applies to men.” A desire to lead, to preach, to share your faith is not served by smooth talk or flattery. And note who does the crushing in verse 20. Not us.
Faith and obedience are one motion
Verse 19 ties obedience to faith, and Matt wanted that lodged in the room before the last section. Think of a kid on the edge of a pool with a parent standing right there: the jump is obedience and it is also trust. Or the friend waving you back as you reverse a truck — you are sure you are about to hit something, he keeps waving, you keep going. Same with “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden”: obeying and believing at once.
The mystery now disclosed
“Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel… according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed… to bring about the obedience of faith — to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.”
Romans 16:25–27“This is the classic stuff Tertius had to put up with,” Matt said of a sentence that opens in verse 25 and does not land until verse 27. The phrase he loves is the mystery kept secret for long ages but now disclosed. In Colossians, Paul is commissioned to proclaim that same hidden mystery, and two verses later says what it is: “Him we proclaim.” The preaching of Jesus can come from him, but principally it is him.
And the phrase that follows — the obedience of faith among all the nations — is where the letter began: “grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith… among all the nations.” Paul did not earn the commission by being the sharpest man available. He received it as grace. Matt hit the same note at the close that Paul hits at the open.
What “all the nations” actually means
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Matthew 24:14Jesus places that testimony before his return and treats it as necessary. Not that every person becomes a believer — he did not say that — but that all the nations have a witness toward the obedience of faith.
Here is the piece Matt says he did not know growing up and learned at Hope Chapel. In English, nation means a country, and there are roughly 195. The Bible’s word is ethnē — distinct peoples. Two tribes in Kenya are two peoples; Native Americans in New Mexico are not one people, because New Mexico is not a tribe. Language is only part of it: Matt has cousins his own age who grew up Jewish in New York, same country and language, genuinely different culture. The Joshua Project puts the count near 17,000 peoples, perhaps 8,000 of them with no self-perpetuating church-planting movement — no way to follow Christ in their own idiom.
A Turkish family in Austin can absolutely come to Hope Chapel and would be welcome — but the services and prayers here run in English. Someone from an island people with no church could learn English, put on a suit and sing from a hymnal in the States. What would be lost is the worship only they can give, which Christ would be receiving from them and not from us.
Every family, and a full prism
Big revivals among English-speaking Americans and Chinese-speaking Chinese are wonderful, and they are still revivals where a church already exists. The promise runs wider, and runs back to Genesis.
“I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:3“God isn’t giving us a dear-diary of what could happen maybe if we get our act together,” Matt said. “He’s just saying it will happen.” If you are the sort who picks up burdens never assigned to you, that matters: the burden that fits only on Jesus will crush yours. Genesis 22:18 narrows it to one offspring, singular — the point Paul presses in Galatians — and keeps the horizon: all the nations of the earth.
“By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it… They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.”
Revelation 21:22–26Distinct peoples still exist in the kingdom. “It’s not culty in the way that you get a robe at the door and everybody gets whitewashed.” Matt let his imagination run — drum routines, a bonfire, fireworks, barbecue, possibly an Americana Tom Petty chord progression somewhere in heaven. The serious version underneath the joke is that no family is left out, and that God gives us the dignity of worshipping him as we really are. You do not have to pray in King James English, or become Chinese, or become Ethiopian. The Father wants a complete and full prism of glory for the Son.
God will do this, cooperation optional
Then a set of thought experiments, offered with a grain of salt. Alexander the Great was a mixed bag — generous with some conquered cities, ruthless elsewhere — and one thing that came out of him was a known world that could read Greek. Rome was similar, and obsessed with excellent roads. So when the New Testament was written, largely in Greek, there was a way to flood the planet with copies fast, and nearly everyone knew someone who could read them and translate. “We littered the planet with the testimony of Jesus on paper, parchment, codices, you name it. Graffiti.”
A modern version: screens and the internet do real spiritual damage, and Matt’s students, studying Jefferson and slavery, kept naming AI as the thing later generations will judge us for. And yet — a mundane reading of the promise that his coming will be seen like lightning from east to west — what if Jesus returns and it is live-streamed, auto-translated into your language? He may well use the machinery of an unhealthy age anyway.
Then the one he warned might be cringey, framed carefully in both directions. Assume a long run of administrations let too many people in irresponsibly, from all over the world and not only across the southern border — and assume too that the current one is deporting too heavily. “These are just the circumstances of our age. Just like Alexander the Great and just like Rome.” When Michael and Allison spoke here a few weeks ago, Michael described church-planting movements among immigrant populations in their displaced places. So a subset of those who came in through open borders converted; a subset of those came from places with no culturally competent witness; and a subset of those are now being deported home. “I’m not saying this is great. I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m just saying — are you aware that God can use us?”
So participate, screwy as you are
He put three questions to the room and got a yes to each. Are you willing to believe he will have his bride — that the knowledge of the glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea? Do you want to see it happen? Are you willing to participate even though you are a little screwy?
Because Paul received grace — the apostleship, the know-how, the willingness to go unmarried, be shipwrecked, be stoned and left for dead — and he loved it. He would have done it if no one had ever helped him.
Which frees you from the worrying. “Especially those who are like real worried about Muslims. Our predecessors were worried about atheists, and theirs about theism. There’s always something to worry about.” And there is always the ability of Christ to overcome regardless of how competent we are. “I’m not competent. I forget why I walk into a room almost every day.”
Evangelism is very good, Matt said, and it is not the whole picture. Some in the body are strategic about planting churches among peoples who have no way yet of following Christ in their own way, and you can back that with prayer or by joining it. “This is an us thing, but it’s really a Jesus thing. And that’s why it’s an us thing.” You can be blackpilled by the news and conclude we are all going to die. We are all going to die. He is still going to do it.
He closed the way he has been trying to make a habit: “I don’t know how to end sermons.” So the room went quiet and asked the Holy Spirit what he would put in each heart to do in response. Then the heart ministry teams came forward in name tags to pray, celebrate or weep with anyone who wanted it. Or grab the person next to you, he said. We do that around here too.